Happy 1st Blogaversary! 

Congratulations. 

If you’re reading this, you’ve officially been giving a crap for one year!

Now, to me, it’s cool that I started this blog a year ago because it’s something I’ve grown to be proud of, but it’s also even cooler to me that you decided to read it. This is incredibly exciting to me because according to science, you didn’t have to read it, and it’s a lot easier to not read something than to read it. Like speed limit signs. Or books.

Anyway, I’d like to take a moment to wish my blog a happy birthday, and now that the moment is over, I’d also like to explain why I’m now thinking about birthdays. We all know that last night was the 89th birthday of the Academy Awards, and before they ring in 90, the Academy brought along some surprises, including what I’m calling a publicity stunt. Apparently Meryl didn’t stir up enough drama in time, so they had to pull out the big stops before the end of the show. We all know that there is no runner up in the Oscar World, so why would there even be two cards? (THERE WOULDN’T)

We are just as confused as you, Warren Beatty.

Back to birthdays, it makes perfect sense that we acknowledge the day in history when someone’s life began, or the anniversary of the first Oscars, but it doesn’t make as much sense as to why we celebrate them. What are we celebrating? It is the fact that you didn’t die yet? Or is it because we’re excited about everything the year in front of us has to hold, and we look at it as a way to encourage the person we are celebrating to achieve their full potential. Or, is it because we are happy to leave another year behind? Happy to move on? Is the future always better than the past? To once again, look to the future and put everything that’s happened to us over the course of 365 days in the past, whether they are good or bad. Do we look at is as, “Today, I begin a new chapter,” or, “Pass the cake, I’m not dead yet!” 

Do we celebrate birthdays as new beginnings, or are they just another day on the timeline?

On the Blogaversary, I’ve decided not to look at a birthday as either. Instead of having a magical epiphany or making a vow or serious proclamation about everything I’m going to accomplish in the next 365 days of Crapgiving, I’m simply going to go over things that I have accomplished and learned in the last year.

When you come to college you realize more than anything that people are going to surprise you. Sometimes they will surprise you in the best way, and others in the worst ways, but it’s all surprising nonetheless. Once in a while, a roommate who you thought had no common sense will surprise you and inspire a blog all at the same time. When discussing the upcoming blogaversary, and everything that has happened to us in the last year, I mentioned how at this time last year, I never would have sat down and just wrote like I do now. My priorities were much different, my personality and ambitions were different, and I had yet to discover my passions because I didn’t think I actively needed to. I thought it was something that would eventually just come, but it doesn’t. Your passions don’t find you, and sometimes you just need a little extra push. 

“Maybe everything that happened to you over the course of a year is what you needed to become a better writer. Some people need other’s to do something mean to them in order to be nice to themselves.”

Dumbfounded, I realized she was right. To me, the blog is a form a self love. A time to sit down and not only do something that makes me happy, but do something productive and positive. 

And maybe that’s what birthday’s are all about. To not look to the future or the past, but focus on bettering yourself right now. The candles are only lit for a moment.